Supreme Court leaves Alameda County’s gun store ordinance standing

Supreme Court leaves Alameda County’s gun store ordinance standing

An Alameda County, Calif., ordinance that restricts new gun stores in unincorporated areas was left intact when the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a challenge by would-be gun dealers and a firearms organization. The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a challenge by would-be gun dealers and a firearms organization to an Alameda County ordinance that bans new gun stores in unincorporated areas within 500 feet of a residential neighborhood, school or day care center. The justices left intact a federal appeals court ruling that said the Second Amendment to the Constitution protects only the right to keep and bear arms, not the right to sell them. Lawyers for the county said similar buffer-zone ordinances are in effect in 17 other cities and counties in California, including San Francisco, Oakland and Contra Costa County. The 1998 Alameda County ordinance was challenged by three businessmen who wanted to open a gun shop in an unincorporated area near San Leandro, 446 feet away from the nearest home on the other side of Interstate 880. Their suit, backed later in legal filings by the National Shooting Sports Federation, contended the county had effectively banned new gun stores in unincorporated areas and therefore violated the rights of prospective gun owners. A three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco refused to dismiss the suit in 2016 and ruled 2-1 that the county, to justify the restriction, would have to prove it was essential to reducing gun crimes. But […]